Beauty and the Beast returns to the big screen this weekend (with a 3-D retrofitting) just a shade over 20 years after its initial release and several years after an extended cut of the film made the rounds. The film – which was one of my fondest childhood movie going experiences – holds up nicely in a thematic sense, with as much love for cinematic craft as Hugo and The Artist, but while the 3-D does add to the film, the HD transfer makes a case that maybe not all hand drawn animated films should be toyed with.

The “tale as old as time, and song as old as rhyme” remains the same, as the heroine Belle (voiced by Paige O’ Hara) takes the place of her inventor father after he is captured by a fearsome and selfish beast (Robbie Benson), who just so happened to be a handsome prince cursed by an enchantress. Together in his enchanted castle full of singing and dancing bric-a-brac, Belle helps Beast learn the true nature of love and caring for someone more than he cares for himself.

Despite being the first ever animated film to be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards, the story to Beauty and the Beast was always structurally unsound. Belle’s transformation from headstrong women, to withering captive, to somewhat sunny optimist still comes full circle, but the character transitions aren’t handled very well, with motivations tied more to plot conventions and storybook moralizing than logical behaviour. Then again, this is ostensibly a children’s film.

That’s all comparatively small potatoes when one approaches the film as more of a historical artifact. From the opening musical number where Belle speaks of her humdrum existence in a provincial French hamlet, Beauty and the Beast strikes a tone of pure joy for the written word. Belle’s bookish ways are looked down upon by a French upper class that thinks a woman couldn’t possibly learn anything from them. It’s a sequence equally literary and cinematic, and a subtle dig at French cinematic sensibilities towards film criticism with the classic line “How can you read this? There’s no pictures!”

Compare this feeling with The Artist, which for all its greatness is a simple story about one man and not saying so much about cinema other than displaying how the rises and falls of celebrity culture are entirely cyclical. Even moreso, compare Disney’s sense of spectacle to Scorsese’s raging polemic disguised as a family film. Disney’s writing staff lucked into a subtler and less headache inducing defence of the cinematic art form in a five minute musical number than Hugo could hammer into someone’s head in over two hours. Coming fresh off a year that many of my colleagues deemed as being too nostalgic for its own good with regards to past masterworks and auteurs, it feels wholly fitting that the best case is made by a 21 year old film.

But enough about subtext, back to the film itself and its new transfer. Reverting back to the original theatrical release and excising the deleted musical number that found its way into the extended cut from a few years back, the backgrounds of the film remain as gorgeous as ever and the sound mix is clear as day. The 3-D makes the combination of hand painted scenery come to life in new and exciting ways, and the HD makes the colours all the more vibrant, but those added dimensions also raise an interesting point.

In scenes where characters are shown in extreme close up, the modern technological advances act as a disservice to the film. With increased picture clarity, the imperfections of hand drawn animation are brought to the forefront. Every pencil stroke and jerky movement is literally in the viewers face and in HD. While I found an odd sense of comfort in being able to visually see the effort that went into making the film, I could also see how some people would say that it now looks cheap by comparison. It leads to a very interesting thing to think about.

While the film was made during the interim between hand drawn and computer animation (which are married seamlessly in the Busby Berkely styled “Be Our Guest” and the titular ballroom dance number), one has to wonder if audiences have not become spoiled by computer animation designed to delete any and all imperfections tied to the use of a decidedly less steady human hand. Does the computer give humanity to something that isn’t there or does the human holding the ink impart some of themselves onto what could be seen by modern audiences as an imperfect creation? Have we been spoiled by the proliferation of computer animation and in about 15 years will we be able to have the same appreciation for these films we once did?

Despite all of this thinking about how the film pertains to modern cinema, I was still taken back to the first day I saw it. The press screening of this version just so happened to be the 20th anniversary of my seeing it for the first time on a snow day from school at the movie theatre I remembered from my youth. It was quite possibly the first time that I looked at a film from a critical perspective. The issues I had with the plot at the age of eight are still roughly the same problems I have now, but as a work of pure cinematic spectacle it might be even more relevant to my tastes as an adult.

Side note: The film is preceded by a short sequel to the movie Tangled. It’s well worth showing up for and serves as proof that Disney has gotten its mojo back when it comes to making short films again.

Neill Blomkamp has gone from visual effects artist to feature film director in just a few years, and he’s not even 30 years old yet — Say Will, what are you doing with your life, eh? There is no doubt that the man has a very promising career ahead of him; anyone who has seen District 9 will not debate that point, but I wanted to take a few minutes to look back at some of the extraordinary work Blomkamp has already done.  A retrospective if you will, of most of his amazing short films and commercials.

Alive in Joburg

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Blomkamp drew on his youth in apartheid South Africa as the basis for Alive in Joburg; the film that would go on to inspire his feature film District 9.  The story of Joburg is essentially the same: aliens arrive on Earth and can’t leave, the government segregates them from society due to all the problems they cause and naturally the shit ends up hitting the fan.  Joburg is shot documentary style, painting a frighteningly convincing picture of a country actually having to deal with refugee aliens.  This ain’t no Alien Nation, this is real. The short film also features Sharlto Copely, who produced it, and who also stars as the lead in Blomkamp’s District 9.

Halo – Combat

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Microsoft and Bungie got together with Peter Jackson and Blomkamp to make these three (edited together as one for your viewing convenience) short films set in the Halo universe. The films were as much viral advertising for Halo 3 as they were a test bed and pitch for a full blown Halo feature film, but that doesn’t make them any less impressive. We all know that movie deal fell through, and neither Jackson or Blomkamp are tied to the project any longer. But hey, at least we’ve got these shorts. I’m not a huge Halo fan, but judging from Blomkamp’s work here, it could have been a pretty cool movie.

Adidas – Yellow

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Adidas commissioned various commercial directors to create a series of short films based on the colours of their shoes. Blomkamp was given the colour yellow. Although Yellow has very little to do with shoes, it is still very awesome. A dangerous AI escapes into society and must be hunted down. With obvious nods to Ghost in the Shell and Isaac Asimov, Yellow is one of my favourite Blomkamp films.

Tetra Vaal

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Think third world Robocop and you get the gist of this short.

Tempbot

The charming story of an office temp… who happens to be a robot… and falls in love with Lynda Carter of Wonder Woman fame. We’ve all been there.

Citroën – Alive with Technology

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It’s a dancing, transforming robot! This Citroën ad from 2005 pretty much proved in concept that a live-action Transformers film was possible. We all know how that turned out, though I’d love to see what Blomkamp could do with a Transformers movie. Step aside Bay!

Nike – Evolution

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Everyone has seen this amazing Nike commercial, it’s arguably Blomkamp’s best known work to date. Enough said.

Nike – Crab

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Robotic crabs armed (legged?) with Nike shoes and a ball. This is going to haunt my nightmares forever, thanks Neill!

If Blomkamp’s CV doesn’t get you excited about District 9, then we can’t be friends any more. You have to see that movie.